jewellery pot

2010-04-30T04:49:00.000-07:00

After nearly two years I'm finally returning to the Jewellery Pot blog. Not ideal I grant you to leave it so long but with the business growing constantly and dualled with personal events (some good- some bad) something had to take a back burner.

Jewellery Pot was represented at many Summer fetes, shopping evenings and Xmas fayres resulting in more and more parties being held with consultants recruited to help with the parties that were filling our diaries.

2008-06-04T10:05:00.001-07:00

Fair Trade

2008-05-30T08:14:00.000-07:00

Spent this week sourcing stock. Because the range is constantly changing a lot of my time is spent doing this. Have ordered some lovely new lines from Donna - a great jewellery designer I have bought from before, and have finally found two companies from which I can get ethically sourced jewellery. I'm looking forward to the stock arriving and showcasing this weekend. Jewellery Pot will be at the indulgence evening in Langenhoe on Friday and also at the school fayre in Nayland on the Saturday this week.

What next?

2008-05-16T10:05:00.000-07:00

Well once the website was up and running I decided to add a blog.
As I said at the beginning I'm a complete novice so I started by giving a brief insight into why, how and when I started Jewellery Pot.

Here on I can tell you about whats happening as it happens.
I now stock a wide variety of costume and silver jewellery and small gifts but would still like to look at supporting fair trade within my business. At the moment I am sourcing companies and hope to continue expanding the range Jewellery Pot offers.

Website goes live

2008-05-15T09:41:00.000-07:00

Once the basic format was set up I got on the case changing colours, fonts and formats but it was the stock that really consumed me.
Photographing a necklace isn't hard but doing it well is more of a challenge. Then there were descriptions, information pages and last but not least optimisation - mmmm what was I letting myself in for? Well basically hours and hours of being back in the office. Hours turned into weeks then months before the Jewellery Pot website surfaced on the net in spring 2008

Demand for a website

2008-05-10T09:29:00.000-07:00

It was in 2008 after another busy Christmas that I decided to have a go at building a website. I was keen to offer good customer service and whenever individual requests for jewellery were made I tried hard to accommodate knowing that not everyone can host a party. But the reality was it was time consuming and not always practical to be available for someone to choose on a one to one basis. What I needed was a website where the shop was truly open 24/7 and a good range was available to choose from. HELP!! Luckily the 'other half' was on hand to help.

Farm, fetes and fairs

2008-05-09T08:54:00.000-07:00

The following year saw me attending numerous fetes, fairs and shopping evenings. Some were good - some not so good but they all helped to promote the brand and get party bookings.
For those that knew me, my shop was never closed and I would often get calls from those close by in need of a last minute present.
With this in mind I teamed up with the local farm shop to have a small selection of Jewellery Pot for sale there.

Partying on!

2008-04-21T11:35:00.000-07:00

As you can imagine the whole ebay thing took over somewhat with my getting ever more excited at the growing sales. However, once I really assessed my turnover I soon discovered that with the ebay costs of listing and selling I had to be doing a huge amount more if I was to make any kind of profit at all. The essence of my business was to keep my stock changing and it was very time consuming having to do the whole photographing to listing process each time for a notibly small amount of profit. With this in mind I decided to keep the shop as a showcase for my business whilst putting more time into the partyplan side.

Party bookings started to build and looking forward to Christmas I was fully booked.
Introducing designer jewellery, small gifts and childrens jewellery was the next step and Jewellery Pot came into its own with customers making the most of the free gift wrap service.

The first Jewellery Pot shop opens

2008-04-17T09:24:00.000-07:00

Having a shop open doesn't mean you are guaranteed customers and with ebay it's no different. With so much competition it's no mean feat to get someone to look at your shop let alone buy in it. I soon learned that it was a numbers game. The more listings the more chance of a sale. You can become abit obsessive finding yourself in your pj's checking your shop before breakfast and listing one more thing before bed at ridiculous hours of the day.
When the first sale went through I skipped around the kitchen - likewise when I got my first feedback. Positive feedback on ebay is addictive - lets face it who doesn't like reading nice things written for them. Even so I was amazed at how nice the comments were and felt a real glow when I read them. Later on I decided to show these on my website. After all, these were comments from my very first mail order customers.

Building a business

2008-04-10T08:55:00.000-07:00

Doing the parties was the fun social part of the business but with it came alot of the more tedious and mind boggling paperwork. Rearranging the third bedroom into an office come stockroom I found myself shut away during the day working on the pc or phone. I still wasn't entirely happy with the logo I'd created and I had also decided to set up an ebay shop. Luckily my 'other half' was the techno kind and helped no end in the start up procedure. It soon became a way of life with my filling every available hour describing, photographing and then editing before finally listing on ebay. The Jewellery Pot store was finally open.

Creating the brand and my first party!

2008-04-03T08:33:00.000-07:00

Like with most cottage industries everything I needed was made at home. This meant many hours on the pc playing with ideas and learning as I went along about how to do things. Eventually I came up with display cards, invitations, compliment slips and business cards that I felt I could use ( I won't say I was totally happy with them as I was still trying to improve all the time).
My first party was held in the village hosted by a close friend.
I was soooo nervous but it was a success. I came home close to midnight on a high and with 2 bookings in my diary.

Where to start!

2008-03-30T06:36:00.000-07:00

Well deciding to go ahead was exciting. With ideas whizzing around in my head and so much to do I was buzzing. To have a clear goal of what I wanted to offer was my starting post. There were already companies including Virgin Cosmetics who sold jewellery through party plan but they were offered at premium prices or via an ordering system.

I needed to be different.

Finding the stock was and still is one of the biggest challenges but still it was only the start.

Choosing a name for the company was important. It needed an identity and I spent days on msn sending suggestions to my patient 'other half'! I came up with Jewellery Pot because I thought it described what I was trying to offer. I was going to have a varied and colourful mix of all sorts of jewellery for all ages and ideally priced under £15. A big melting pot, an eclectic mix where the style was to choose your own!

Jewellery Pot was just right.

Hi

2008-02-26T14:25:00.000-08:00

Well where do I begin?
I've decided to join the world of bloggers albeit as a complete novice!
It can't be so hard can it - especially if you are used to chatting.
People ask me how, why and when did I start this venture, and this seemed the perfect way to tell those who are interested.
So here goes!

The history of Jewellery Pot and my background are found on the Jewellery Pot website but here is a bit more of a personal insight into it.

I have been in retail since the beginning of my career starting for a small company which allowed me to be involved in all aspects of the trade. Following this I moved on to work for companies such as Estee Lauder, Laura Ashley and Past Times where I held management postitions.

Then my life changed! I had a beautiful baby girl.

I knew I had to change direction and Party plan seemed the best option where I could put my retail experience to use whilst choosing the hours that I worked. I joined Virgin Cosmetics and built up a team of consultants to become a group sales manager. But with the growth came longer hours and more restrictions. I found myself compromising my home life for the business with the job no longer as flexible as it had started.

Added to this I wanted a new challenge so in 2006 I decided to set up a party plan business of my own selling jewellery.